additional MSD card to iFlash Quad = ipod 6 gen

[micrometer]

I've been using my 6th gen ipod with an iflash quad with only one card (256gb). I want to add another 256gb MSD card to slot 2. Will Rockbox recognize the new card without any changes and I can just add more content as normal?

or

Will I have to re-install Rockbox as if this is a brand new install (new partition, re-copy mp3's back onto the ipod...?

Thanks,
Mike

[speachy]

I don't know how the iFlash Quad adapters work across multiple cards (even their own web site is lacking in this respect), but there are two possibilities:

1) stripe data blocks across all installed cards.  So installing an additional card means everything else stops working  (I don't find this likely)
2) linearly combine all installed cards.  So (eg) the second card probably won't be touched until the first runs out of space.

In the first scenario you'd have to do a complete format/reinstall (except the bootloader) as the stripe offsets for any existing data gets scrambled out of existence.

In the second scenario, from the OS perspective the "drive" just got bigger, but all existing data remains in the same place.  So you'd only need to extend the existing partition to make use of the rest of the space, no reinstall needed.   You can use something like gparted to accomplish this.

Keep in mind that in either scenario, with every card you add you double the probability of failure, and if any of the cards fail (especially the first, which will inevitably see the most wear) you will experience (most likely total) data loss.

[micrometer]

Thanks, speachy

[micrometer]

I originally posed my same question to iFlash and they pointed me to Rockbox for answers. They can't even answer a question about their own product.

[rockbox_dev123]

This is only conjecture but I suspect that it is striping the data as if it was RAID 0.

I say this because a friend recently built an ipod6g with 2 microSDXC cards and is getting the max USB2 bus speed when writing.

It would appear that they're UHS Speed Class 3 cards which should be good for 30MB/s. Considering he is getting closer to 40MB/s I'm going to put my money on a stripe. I could of course be completely wrong!

[speachy]

I suspect he's wrong, because I'm 95% sure there's no way the ipod6g is capable of maxing out USB2.   But until someone systematically tests these various hypothesis, we'll never know.

[micrometer]

Well, when the time comes to add the new MSD card to slot 2, I will just add it and see how Rockbox behaves. I will of course have a backup of the >13k songs I have and can go either way.

Thanks,
Mike